


A Casualty of War

by alidiabin



Category: Bomb Girls
Genre: F/M, Minor Character Death, Spoilers, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-27 06:54:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/659134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alidiabin/pseuds/alidiabin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Airmen bring news that will destroy the Corbett family, a dead son. General spoilers for S2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Casualty of War

Lorna moved across the factory floor as the girls went about their work, and gossiped about some of the more risqué girls on red shift. Lorna did not discipline the girls for such conversations knowing that there were bigger battles to fight. She also no longer judged the girls that were gossiped about, after her little mishap with Marco Moretti. Where she had finally understood why such girls did such frowned upon things. The floor of Victory Ammunitions hummed along nicely, one might even believe that the coming day would be a good one, but the knots that kept tying themselves in Lorna’s stomach told her otherwise. The knots in Lorna’s stomach told her that her whole world was about to collapse.

She heard a commotion outside the factory, and wondered what the few male staff was up to now, as it was always them causing such noise. Then she heard a whistle, the Corbett family whistle, which startled her, why would any member of her family need to visit her at the factory.

“Lorna,” Bob called from outside the factory, startling her. Bob had only come to the factory once, on Armistice Day and that had taken much persuasion. He would not turn up to the factory with no purpose, something had happened, Lorna knew it.

“Bob,” Lorna whispered as she moved away from the factory floor, and found her husband wheeling toward her. She could feel the eyes of the blue shift girls on her, as they found their latest piece of gossip.

Upstairs Harold, stepped out of the office, having heard the airmen and Mr Corbett were on their way. He stood there waiting for Lorna’s world to implode.

“They took one our kids, Lorna.” Bob shouted, as he reached his wife. “They sent our kids to die, and look what happened.”

Lorna stared at Bob, she had heard what he had said but maybe the words did not really sink in. Maybe Bob had drunk too much whiskey with lunch, and gotten reality and his nightmares mixed up. She tried to tell herself, that both her boys were alive, and that Bob was drunk. The knot in her stomach swelled up inside of her, telling her that she was the one with a mixed up reality.

Two men dressed in Canadian military uniforms stepped into the entrance of the factory, having waited behind for Mr Corbett to ease the blow. The girls on blue shift gasped. They had seen this situation unfold enough times to know it would end in tears. The airmen never came to a person’s work place with good news. It seemed like only yesterday, they had come to break Edith’s heart.

“They took him, Lorna,” Bob shouted as Lorna’s hand reached for his, in their usual act of comfort. “They took our son, they promised him an easy War, told him he was doing his duty as a good Canadian, and they left him to die.”

“No,” Lorna said shaking her head defiantly, telling herself it was not happening, not to her. “No, Bob we raised ourselves a pair of fighters. Neither of them going to let the war take them,”

“Mr and Mrs Corbett,” the older of the two airmen began reciting a speech he had recited far too often since the outbreak of war.  

“No,” Lorna repeated as the tears swelled in her brown eyes. “No, we raised fighters,”

Bob’s hand gripped hers tight, as his own eyes swelled with tears. They stood still waiting for the name; waiting to know which son they would have to buy a gravestone for; waiting to know which son they would be mourning and which son they would be praying for a safe return.

Finally the name fell from the airman lips, Stanley’s name.  Sweet Stanley had been their eldest child, a fickly baby that turned into a delightful child, and wonderful young man. Stanley had had been the one who could have really made something of himself if they’d had a bit more money and there was no war going on. Stanley who still risked his life to save someone else, despite promising his mother he would come home from the War without so much as a scratch.

“Stanley,” Lorna cried as she felt the ground beneath her weaken, she felt herself slipping, as the weight of the grief overtook her. She felt Bob’s hands on her waist as she started to slip. He could not hold her for long,  and she fell onto the floor, the grief toppling her over.

“They took him,” Bob whispered as he buried his head in his wife’s mop of dark hair, as she leaned on his war-worn legs, “They took our boy,”

“Not Stanley,” Lorna whispered as her cries slipped into inaudible sobs, as she cried for the wasted life and the now empty space in her heart.  “Not our Stanley,”

It was Kate who started singing the national anthem, with the words slipping from her lips before she could control them, the other girls on Blue Shift and Mr Aiken quickly joined in. The sobbing was silenced by praise to a country that had signed the Corbett boy up for war.

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's implied that Eugene and Stanley, are twins. But Eugene's behavior in 2x04 screams middle child, so I made Stanley the elder twin, hence the line about Stanley being the elder son.


End file.
